PLEASANT HILL, CA (August 28, 2017) – Pension Dynamics Company LLC (Pension Dynamics), a leading independent benefit and retirement service provider for small to medium sized companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, announced that the company has been recognized by the San Francisco Business Journal on the following lists: Top East Bay Private Companies (rank 105) and Top Bay Area Private Companies (rank 229). The lists honor privately held and independent companies which are headquartered in the Bay Area and/or East Bay Area with big economic impact.

A concept called “self-continuity” can have an impact on personal financial decisions. What is it, exactly? It’s a measure of how our lives in the future may change from the lives we lead today. High self-continuity means not much difference between today and tomorrow. Low means a future life as a departure from today’s status quo.

As my summer vacation dragged into its last week I had run out of beach-time reading, but fortunately I had packed a copy of “Asset Allocation” by Roger Gibson. The fifth edition of the 27-year-old book is just riveting. I can’t put it down.

The Federal Reserve and most economists are struggling to understand why we don’t have increased inflation as the unemployment rate drops to a record low percentage. Anything less than 5 percent is generally considered to be “full employment.” The theory is that when employers can’t find enough people to meet their needs, they simply raise wages until job seekers are beating down the doors. Rising wages prompt the need to increase prices, and an upward inflationary spiral is set in motion. So why is it not happening today?

Next up in Washington will be tax reform since an easy, no-brainer like infrastructure improvement has been put on hold until sometime later in 2018. Fixing roads and bridges awaits the findings of the new committee formed to study the subject — which really means a fight over which states deserve to receive the forthcoming pork.

Hardly a month goes by without financial advice publications (MONEY, Kiplingers, AARP, etc.) running articles about how to prepare for retirement. And, so much of this advice is needlessly complex.

For example, I just read the recommendation for a couple about to retire who had $1,200,000 and who had determined that they needed $5,000 per month, or $60,000 per year, in income to supplement their Social Security. The combined income would enable them to pay what they estimated their expenses to be.

We’re coming up on the “summer doldrum” phenomenon whereby the stock market offers a long history of a downdraft at some point over the summer months. A quick look at a graph of the S&P 500’s last 10 years illustrates that the market experienced a correction every year, starting in 2009, at some point between July and the end of September. It hasn’t happened this year yet, but you just wait.

The last time I wrote about the doldrums was in July of 2010. Greece had imploded and the BP oil spill was upon us.

Yogi Berra said, “It’s tough to make predictions — especially about the future.” But, we never hesitate to try. The economy and, more importantly, its resulting stock prices are the issues commanding endless speculation. It’s a preoccupation fueled by endless hope.

So the Institute of Trend Research weighed in recently with an analysis of consumer debt, which can be a forward indicator of sorts.

The average annual investment cost for an index fund far exceeds the low-cost alternative.

I’m disappointed to learn that Bill McNabb is retiring from the senior post at Vanguard after heading that company since 2008.

He and I happened to meet in Washington back in the late ’90’s when we both testified at a U.S. Department of Labor hearing. The subject matter, upon which we had both been called to speak as experts, was the destructive effect of excessive fees charged to participants in retirement plans.